Having High Blood Pressure During Your 30s Is Linked To Decreased Brain Health Later In Life, According To New Research
A new study conducted by researchers at UC Davis has found that having high blood pressure during your 30s is linked to worse brain health at age 75.
This finding and more were uncovered after the team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans to compare two groups– older adults who had high blood pressure between ages 30 and 40, as well as older adults who had normal blood pressure during their 30s.
The comparison revealed that those with higher blood pressure during their 30s had drastically lower regional brain volumes, as well as weakened white matter integrity. Both of these factors are also related to dementia.
“Treatment for dementia is extremely limited, so identifying modifiable risk and protective factors over the life course is key to reducing disease burden,” explained Kristen M. George, the study’s first author.
“High blood pressure is an incredibly common and treatable risk factor associated with dementia. This study indicates hypertension status in early adulthood is important for brain health decades later.”
On top of that, these adverse effects in certain brain regions– including frontal cortex volume and the decreased volume of gray matter– were more significant among men. The researchers believe this difference might be due to the protective benefits that estrogen provides women prior to menopause.
In the United States, it is estimated that approximately 47% of adults have hypertension, according to the CDC. Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, refers to blood pressure that exceeds 130/80 mmHg.
The rate of high blood pressure among the adult population does vary by race and gender, though. Among Black adults, the hypertension rate is approximately 56%; meanwhile, white adults have a rate of 48%, Asian adults have a rate of 46%, and Hispanic adults have a hypertension rate of 39%.
In terms of gender, approximately 44% of women have hypertension compared to about 50% of men.
eurobanks – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
For the study, the researchers used data from 427 participants– which was collected via the Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR) and the Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experience (KHANDLE) study.
This allowed the team to access health data from a diverse group of adults between 1964 and 1985.
More specifically, the researchers obtained two different blood pressure readings taken when each participant was between the age of 30 and 40.
This helped the team determine what patients were hypertensive or had normal blood pressure during young adulthood.
Then, the patients MRI scans– which were conducted from 2017 to 2022– allowed the team to search for late-life biomarkers of white matter integrity and neurodegeneration.
It was at this point that a significant reduction of cerebral gray matter volume was observed among both women and men with hypertension. Although, this was still stronger among men.
So, compared to individuals with normal blood pressure, the participants with high blood pressure or transitioning to high blood pressure showed lower frontal cortex volume, cerebral gray matter volume, and fractional anisotropy– or brain connectivity measure.
Now, the researchers did note that because of the limited sample size, they were unable to examine ethnic and racial differences. The team also pointed out how MRI data was only collected at one time during the participants’ late life.
This means that the study was only able to determine volumetric differences and could not point to distinct evidence of neurodegeneration over a certain time period.
Despite that, the team is still confident that the study underscores concerns that cardiovascular risk factors during young adulthood are extremely damaging to brain health later in life.
“This study truly demonstrates the importance of early life risk factors, and that to age well, you need to take care of yourself through life. Heart health is brain health,” concluded Rachel Whitmer, the study’s senior author.
“We are excited to be able to continue following these participants and to uncover more about what one can do in early life to set yourself up for healthy aging in late life.”
To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in JAMA Network Open, visit the link here.
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